Harodhig
“Harodhig...” - An aspect of Shub-Niggurath. History Spawn are an unusual race, said among themselves to have budded off some greater creature eons ago. For none of them is that more true than for Harodhig, Scion of Shub-Niggurath, Black Goat with a Thousand Young. In the depths of Orv, in a cave on the coast of the Sightless Sea, a desperate ritual was performed. A tribe of spawn faced potential capture by the minions of their hated enemies, the aboleths. The gods had done nothing for them, and so the tribe turned their attention to an Outer Gods. Calling to Shub-Niggurath, wherever in the lightless void of the Dark Tapestry she may wait, the tribe made prayers and offerings, but it was not one of those that triggered a response. It was the offer of a trade: death for life. Specifically the deaths of their enemies and in exchange the tribe would rear whatever horror she chose to birth in their dimension to adulthood. The whims of the Outer Gods are utterly unknowable to mortals, but for her own inscrutable reasons this offer caught her attention, and at the ritual’s apex an aspect of her form answered. Some went mad, and others died of fright, but to the rest of the tribe death and madness were preferable to capture and enslavement, and so the ritual continued until the aspect of Shub-Niggurath stabilized, however briefly. With no more effort than a mortal might put into snuffing a candle, the hordes of minions bearing down on their cavernous home were slain, and the aspect of the Outer Goddess began to devour the dead. Drow, duergar, humans, spawn - it did not seem to matter to the avatar of the Black Goat with a Thousand Young - all were consumed to sate her hunger. And then, as the aspect began to fade from existence, the birth pangs began. Shuddering and convulsing and writhing in ways that drove yet more of the tribe to madness a growth appeared and grew until it was large enough to be held in the arms of one of the spawn present - one of the surviving priests of this newborn cult. As the tribe gathered around amidst the dying ritual fires, the deepening darkness whispered a name. “Harodhig...” Perhaps the name has significance, perhaps it does not. The whims of the Outer Gods are unfathomable after all. But while named, the newborn was neither one of the Dark Young, nor did it appear to be any other especially monstrous creature. In fact it was an infant spawn, just like any other in the tribe. The sane survivors counted their blessings and honored their pact. They raised Harodhig as one of their own, despite his… eccentricities. He lacked the spawn’s ancestral memory - his memories were of nameless things that dwelt in the Dark Tapestry. He possessed a curiosity about other creatures that bordered on unhealthy, often peeling away hide and chitin to study flesh and bone underneath. Eventually, Harodhig matured and grew curious about the differences between himself and his kin, but thankfully not to the point of dismembering himself or them. The tribe’s priest - the very same that had first held him, informed him of the circumstances of his birth. A bud off of something greater, like all spawn, and yet entirely different at the same time, Harodhig wandered the Vaults of Orv in search of his destiny, evading or slaying its hazards at his whim, until one day he found a path to the surface. He left the dark behind because he had never seen such wonders as the blue of the sky and the green of plants. He wandered, and while some attempted to attack him for his frightful appearance, he eventually came to areas diverse enough that he was not immediately attacked. Here he delved into the lore of bodies, languages, and cultures, and even that of his birth mother, eventually arriving at a grim conclusion: his birth was a sign that the stars were nearly right, and that the Outer Gods would soon reign again. Harodhig knows that nothing can stop the Outer Gods, but he has an appreciation for the mortals that they would exterminate, and so he came to a strange profession for a spawn. He became an anthropologist, in the name of preserving languages and cultures when the day comes that the Outer Gods reclaim their dominion over the Material Plane. He has spent most of his time amongst humans, for their plentiful cultures and for their many trade contacts to vouch for him amongst those of other races that might frown on his existence. Appearance Harodhig appears to be a perfectly normal spawn. He has pale grey skin, spidery claws, three rows of dorsal spines running down his back, and a single large red eye in the center of his forehead, all attached to a form that could be called humanoid but for the fact that the arms and legs are far too long. Personality Harodhig is intensely curious about the world and everything in it. He desires a place in the world, whether a natural niche or a forcibly carved one seems to matter little to him. He can seem somewhat dour given his belief that the Outer Gods will come and ultimately purge the Material Plane of all that displeases them, but he uses this as a form of motivation to adventure so that he may preserve at least the knowledge of all that will be gone. Aspirations Harodhig's deepest desire is to know everything through experience. As an anthropologist, this means living among various peoples and in various places. As a xenoalchemist, it means grafting as many extra limbs organs to his body as possible. He would also like to know his mother's motives for making so mundane in comparison to her other children, but accepts that as an Outer Goddess, Shub-Niggurath's whims and desires are probably beyond his ability to understand.Category:Character